I am amazed at this, really. The Accolade is an all-female Saudi rock band that cannot perform out or be photographed for publicity, but they are still rocking. They say they hope to maybe someday perform in Dubai, which if they could perform anywhere in Saudi Arabia, I would think it would be there. The article talks about how some of the members go about uncovered, with teased hair, and with facial piercings. From the IHT article:
In a country where women are not allowed to drive and rarely appear in public without their faces covered, the band is very different. The prospect of female rockers clutching guitars and belting out angry lyrics about a failed relationship — the theme of “Pinocchio” — would once have been unimaginable here.
But this country’s harsh code of public morals has slowly thawed, especially in Jidda, by far the kingdom’s most cosmopolitan city. A decade ago the cane-wielding religious police terrorized women who were not dressed according to their standards. Young men with long hair were sometimes bundled off to police stations to have their heads shaved, or worse.
If you are curious about what they sound like, they have a myspace up, of course. They kind of remind me of Heart.
I applaud the group’s bravery and I hope they stay safe. I guess “staying safe” and “breaking barriers” don’t really go hand-in-hand, do they?
2 Comments
Pretty damn cool. And, really, they are the epitome of “punk,” which makes those Green Day fans out there look like even bigger poseurs.
Ummm. Dubai isn’t IN Saudi Arabia.
It is on the Arabian peninsula, but that’s not the same thing. It’s like saying that the U.K. is your favorite country on the European continent. Ooops, it’s an island.
Just as the European continent doesn’t extend out to cover Ireland, Iceland & the UK even though they are considered “European countries,” Saudi Arabia doesn’t cover Dubai. It covers a great deal of the Arabian Peninsula, but Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, Yemen & the Arab Emirates (of which Dubai is one) occupy portions of the Arabian Peninsula as well.
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